February 18th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
7 Comments 
The best of these is not appropriate for this venue so this is the last of this series, but who knows? Somebody else or I may remember another one.
Some time in nineties Walvick played against the Ira Rubin, aka, the Beast in a national pairs event. Walt was not vulnerarable in fourth seat. Rubin opened two no trump in first position which was passed to Walt sitting in fourth seat. As Walvick thought the Beast asked him, “”Do you know who I am?” . Reasoning his partner had to have something, Walvick balanced with three hearts which was passed around to The Beast who thought for a while and doubled. That became the contract. As he chalked up +530 Walvick asked the Beast, “Do you know who I am?”
February 16th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
No Comments
Especially in match points always pay attention to your and the opponent’s vulnerability in balancing or competing for part scores. If if you are vulnerable in matchpoints you have to be slightly less aggresive in these auctions. You don’t want to risk going your oppenents doubling and setting you one for minus 200 which figures to be a very bad result in a part score hand If you are not vulnerable you have a little safety because going down one, doubled is 100 which is less than the opponents can get unless they can only make exactly 1NT or two of a minor. Of course, you have to be pretty sure you may go down only one. If you go down two vulnerable you’re giving your opponents + 200 even if they don’t double. Similarly, if you go down two doubled nonvulnerable you figure to be getting a very bad score
If you think you have a decent chance of beating vulnerable opponents two in a part score hand you should be reluctant to double as so doing so will give you a probable top if you defeat it but result in your getting a probable bottom, if you don’t . By the same reasoning you should be more aggresive doubling nonvulnerable opponents.
February 11th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
No Comments
Once long ago in the days of three or four day regionals and board a match team games I went to Spartanburg, South Carolina with Ed Lazarus, Dave Treadwell and Walt Walvick. The first day I played with Ed. The only hand I remember is that Ed could have let declarer win a trick in dummy thus endplaying it and guaranteeing himself a trick. Instead he wound up getting endplayed himself. Our game didn’t get much better. In the opens I played with Walt. If possible, Our game was worse than the previous day’s had been. The next day was the team game. As we had all played together any lineup was feasible, but all three of us wanted Dave as a partner. We finally decided to cut cards to determine our partners. Of course, I wound up having to play with Walt. On the first hand we had a short auction. After a few bids I jumped to six diamonds. Not thinking of the possibility I had already bid his values, Walt bid seven diamonds. I went down one. Totally disgusted, I tore up my convention card. I knew my teammates and the ACBL would look very dimly upon my quitting at this point so I continued to play. About the tenth board I realized the first board had been our only bad result. We were having a terrific game! I got a blank convention card and filled it in with plausible bad results.
Our game continued to be super. When Dave and Eddie returned I could see Eddie looked excited. When they came to compare scores, Eddie said, “We have a great game If you two of you idiots could follow suit only follow suit we will be leading .”
I said, “We were unlucky, but we played pretty well.” I had the opponents beating us in close games and our failing to make ours. I had a plausible explanation for all our results except for the first board As we compared Eddie, who is short, started jumping up and down because he was so upset. Ever the gentleman, Dave didn’t say anything, but his face kept getting redder.
I think we supposedly had finished average. Finally, Walt said, “Now let’s compare with the real card.” When we did that we found we were easily leading the field. We held on in the evening session to win the event easily.
A few years after that Walt, Ed and Walt’s partner, Don Smolen, played in another board a match team in Norfolk, Virginia In order to play on our team, Don came , from Philadelphia only to play in the team . We led the field after at the half. When play resumed Ed and I had a horrible game. Everything we had done worked out badly. As we were slightly late getting to to Walt and Don’s table so anybody who thought they might be in contention was watching as we compared results.
“We can’t lose a board” said Walt. I said, “We can’t win a board.” As we compared we were doing much better than I would have expected, but much worse than Walt hd thought was possible.
Finally, Walt said, “Come on, let’s see your real card. ” As he later explained to me, he looked at my face and realized there was no real card. We wound up average.
February 10th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
1 Comment
My son, Erik, plays whist-like games such as hearts and spades frequently. I have tried to get him to play bridge with me. He is intimidated by the bidding, and he said it seems that it’s too easy to cheat in bridge. I know aside from outright having signals many of the top players of would hesitate making it easy for their partner to read what they had or they could read their partner’s delays.
I once played against a top professional who is still considered one of the best players in the country. I’ll call him Joe. was playing with a weak sponsor he had played with often. Joe opened one club to my right. Both my partner and I passed throughout. His partner bid promptly bid one diamond. Joe bid one spade and his partner raised to two spades. Joe now bid Blackwood and upon his partner’s response bid six spades. I had an outside ace and king. Reasoning neither of my opponents had shown great strength until their rebids, I thought I had a chance to beat the hand so I led away from my king. Joe claimed, and I wound up losing my ace. Seeing I was puzzled, Joe told me he hadn’t jump shifted because his partner always thought about it with a marginal response so he was sure his partner would respond if Joe only made a minimum bid.
Another time I was discussing a hand with one of the top internationalists at the time. He told me, “You have to be a schmuck if you don’t help your partner.” In other words, you should hesitate with a close bid.
sometimes even bidding boxes won’t prevent conveying illegal information. Bob Goldman and I were playing against a pretty good sponsor and his regular professional. Bob opened one spade. The sponsor started thinking. He touched various calls. Finally, he threw double on the table. I think everybody at the table knew he had a good hand with short hearts. Nothing untoward happened as his partner did not take advantage of the illegal information he had received. I won’t say Walvick’s law about this is totally true, but there is enough validity in it to it to be discouraging.
Incidentally, when I talked to Erik about this he pointed out bridge, with partnerships is subject to this, as opposed to a game such as poker in which anything goes. I guess a sport such as golf in which players will call penalties upon themselves is an ideal solution, but in normal play for high stakes, I don’t know how honest a player may be.
February 8th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
No Comments
Be aware of the advantage of having a long trump suit. Always reassess your hand when you know you have a fit. For example, assume the bidding goes 1S by you, 2S by partner, and 4S by you. Suppose you get an average dummy of KJ3, 9862, 10976, K8. You might have AQ109753, 3, KQJ8, Q or you might have AQJ76, K3, A74, A76.
With the first hand you will make your contract unless the opponents get a diamond ruff.With the second you probably won’t unless the HA is onside even though declarer has 18 HCP as opposed to the 14 of the first hand.
It is easy to conprehend if you realize each of your long trumps will probably be equivalent to aces if you play the contract in rhat suit. If you have length in your partner’s suit there is a good chance your partner will be able to ruff a suit in a suit you have shortness gaining one or more extra tricks. If that doesn’t eventuate your length helps to obviate bad breaks in the suit or may help partner execute a strip and endplay.
February 6th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
No Comments
Walt Walvick and I were at the 1970 Labor Day Regional in Pittsburgh and were sharing a large room near the tournament site. One night, Dennis Kasle, Gaylor’s younger brother, arrived. He found us to ask if we could put him up in our room. We told him where we were staying but that we could not go back until we were finished playing that session. He would have to wait until it was over very late that night.
Dennis was very tired and went to the motel. He said to the room clerk, “I’m Mark Blumenthal. May I please have the key to my room?”
The clerk said, “We don’t have a Mark Blumenthal registered here.”
“Oh,” said Dennis. “I mean I’m Walt Walvick.” The clerk gave him the key, and Dennis went up to the room and went to sleep.
About 2:00am Walt and I arrived. Providentially I had stopped to get a Pepsi so Walt was alone when he told the clerk he was Walt Walvick and asked for his key. Fully alerted, the clerk accompanied him to the room.
When they got there the clerk opened the door. He snapped on the lights and pointed to the recumbent Dennis. He said, “If you are Walt Walvick, who is that?”
” Oh my God,” said Walvick. “I’ve never seen him before.”
The people running the motel knew something funny was happening as they gave us a notice that we had to leave by noon, but all three of us had a room. The next day we found a very close place with no problem.
February 3rd, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
1 Comment
I knew Mel since I started playing bridge in the city of Washington in the early ’60’s. He passed away from heart failure mainly caused by his having been a smoker for about sixty years. He was born in 1918 and passed away January 28 of this year. He was not an expert by this site’s standards, but he was a competent and but had played who had played since the 40’s, and had some success. He played with and was frequent partner and friend of Supreme Justice, John Paul Stevens. He was at one time the chief Mark Blumenthalistrative judge of the National relations Board. For those baseball fans here, Mel thought he and Joe Dimaggio were the only people to have been at both Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken’s 2130th consecutive games.
February 2nd, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
No Comments
You should pay attention to your and your opponent’s vulnerability when you are preempting. When you are vulnerable and they are not you have to be conservative. Good opponents will know all they have to do is defeat you two tricks doubled to exceed the possible value of their game. A typical three spades opening in this situation might be AKQ10865, 76, J8, 107 or KQJ97532 Q,6, 9742. If both sides are vulnerable you can be more aggresive, but be wary of going down two, for minus 200 which will be bad if the opponents can’t make a game. A typical hand for opening three spades in this situation. might be KQ109764, Q J, –6432 or K9,8654, or KJ109752, 8, 7, K987. Nonvulnerable against nonvulnerable you can loosen up more. A three spades opening might look like KJ97532, Q97, 83, J. Non vulnerable against vulnerable almost anything goes. You might open three spades on QJ96532, K764, J8, — or K1098643, 109, 96, 63. A similar caution applies to weak twos and jump overcalls. I would open AKQ10,53, 75, 963, 6, two spades only at unfavorable his vulnerability; If your partner responds with a force of two no trump, bid bid three no trump which shows this suit rather than showing a feature.
January 28th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
2 Comments
In 1966 I didn’t have a car and wanted to play in the Labor Day regional in Pittsburgh because I had a good board a match team of Sidney Aronson, with whom I had won my first regional open pairs the year before and Harlow Lewis and Tony Dionisi, a good pair with whom I played a lot. It would be convenient to get a ride there and somebody with whom to share a room. Walvick, Mike Carson and Mike Garner were willing to go, but they didn’t have a fourth for the team. I called a friend in Washington DC who told me he could fix them up with a decent local player, Tom Lyon.
We finished with a good score. I walked over to how the team I had put together had done. Mike Carson and Walt were comparing scores. They came to a board about which Mike said, “I’m sorry, Walt. We were -90.” That was written on his card.
“That’s OK, Mike, we won the board” said Walt as he he had +110 written on his card.
After a pause Mike said, “Uh, I’m sorry. , Walt.We we really were -900 on this hand.”.
“That’s alright, Mike, “. said Walt. “We actually were + 1100.” That result enabled them to win the event. My team finished second.
January 26th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
2 Comments
When you realize your partnership is in trouble as the opponents have been doubling you for penalties at a low level, you and your partner should pass any undoubled bid rather than trying to run to what you think might be an hereto undiscovered better strain.
You and your partner should bid bid suit bid four card suits up the line in an attempt to find a fit as opposed to bidding a higher five card one. For example, say you have QJ, 75 , KJ762, AKQ4 and decide to open one no trump1NT. The bidding goes double, pass, pass to you. Partner may have from 0 to 8 points. If near the lower number partner almost certainly lacks a 5 card or greater suit to run to. You feel the opponents may be able to take the first ten tricks so you decide to run. You should bid 2C instead of 2D. If your partner has a fit the opponents may not double that. If they do, and it is passed around to you, you can still decide to bid 2D without raising the number of tricks you need to take make your contract. If you indeed have a club fit and you had bid 2D you would have had to go to the three level to bid it. In 1963 my partner , Steve Rzewski and I played against Canadian soon to be expert Joe Silver and Steve Reiter in a 50 – 80 MP pair regional Obviously at that time none of us were known as good players. Joe, with whom I later became pretty friendly, did not know each other. Every contract Steve or I bid bid was getting doubled, and we knew we were in danger of going for a big number. Steve bid something. It went pass and I passed. Then it went pass! Both Steve and I audibly let out our breaths. The contract went down a few, but the result was not a disaster. That was the first regional I won. Joe and Steve were second. Had they had doubled us they would have won the event.
Subscribe to our feed
Bridge-related